Texans’ complaints about gas pumps rise with prices

As gasoline prices rise, so do complaints from consumers worried they might be getting cheated at the pump.

In the first seven months of this fiscal year, 1,232 motorists have filed complaints with the Texas Department of Agriculture, which inspects gasoline pumps for accuracy. That compares with 1,559 for all of fiscal year 2011.

“There’s a cachet with gas like no other. When you get a deal with gas, it feels like a big deal. When you don’t get a deal with gas, it also feels like a big deal,” said Jeff Lenard, vice president of the National Association of Convenience Stores.

Burel Wolf of Lancaster is a consumer who felt ripped off after trying to fill his old, trusty 5-gallon gas can and getting far less than he believed he should have received for his money. He contacted Problem Solver and asked how to make a complaint to the state and get the pump reviewed.

Soon after the story ran in March, an inspector headed to the station and checked out 25 percent of the pumps located there. Wolf was told that the two pumps that were monitored were accurate. But he was not told if the one he actually used was inspected.

“The inspector should have checked all the pumps,” said Wolf, who says he does accept that no error was found. “They all could be correct now anyway, but they weren’t that day. That pump wasn’t right.”

The state does allow a bit of tolerance in the measurements, following the national standard. Investigators allow a pump to be off by roughly six tablespoons per 5 gallons and still be considered accurate. Stations that fail that standard can be fined.

The agency assessed fines 1,525 times, totaling $1,030,616, between 2007 and March, according to records obtained by Problem Solver from the Agriculture Department through the Texas Public Information Act. During that same period, the department collected $435,481 in penalties from gasoline stations for failing to properly maintain equipment.

The amounts assessed during a specific time period do not match those collected because of the time it takes to complete the entire enforcement process. Companies often legally negotiate the penalties downward.

The data kept by the agency shows that most stations fined by the state have a singular incident of failing to maintain pumps correctly. But a few show up in the data more frequently.

For instance, a station named Crawdad’s in southeast Texas was dinged in both 2009 and 2010. The station was fined $14,250, the largest fine assessed in the past five years. A second fine of $10,000, the eighth largest during that same time period, also was levied against the station. Crawdad’s paid $2,250 to the state, but the status for the cases is “pending enforcement action.”

Meanwhile, SunMart service stations made headlines for failing to maintain pumps accurately. In 2010, a jury in Harrison County in East Texas handed down a $30 million verdict against the station’s owner, Petroleum Wholesale, for allegedly intentionally cheating consumers at its fuel pumps. That case is now heading back into court, because the judge ordered a new trial that is now scheduled for August 2013.

An analysis of the state’s records shows that most stations are being inspected within the four-year time frame required under state law. As of March 20, 98.6 percent of all of the gas stations in the state had an up-to-date inspection. About 1.4 percent of the state’s 13,620 gasoline stations were later than they should have been. Of those, 171 were delayed by fewer than nine months.

“The remaining 13 stations received inspections within a 14-month period or less,” said agency spokesman Bryan Black.

Wolf said he appreciated getting the answers to his questions but believes that the frequency of inspections per pump still leaves a lot to chance.

“They can check today and they’ll be right, but they still can be wrong tomorrow,” he said.

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